TREKKING

RAK­IURA RIDES is lo­cated at Otatara, just 10 min­utes from the In­ver­cargill CBD, and runs all year round. The treks vary to suit be­gin­ners through to ex­pe­ri­enced, and take rid­ers me­an­der­ing along the edge of the Oreti River, over open plains, through wind­ing bush and for­est tracks, across sand dunes and down the beach with Ste­wart Is­land as the back­drop. Groups have a max­i­mum of five peo­ple, and there is a weight limit of 100kg. Con­tact Suzi Pierce (03) 213 1081 or 021 2340322.

Mus­ter­ing on horse­back is a unique as­pect of a high coun­try farm visit.”

TARA DOWNS HORSE TREKS Also not far from the city, lo­cated near the coastal town of Omaui, is the fam­ily-owned Tara Downs Horse Treks. There you’ll get a chance to trek through one of the re­motest parts of New Zealand, through un­in­hab­ited coast­line, na­tive bush and an­cient forests. Con­tact (03) 214 0011.

ORE­PUKI HORSE TREKS Fur­ther west on State High­way 99 be­tween River­ton and Tu­at­a­pere, Ore­puki Horse Treks of­fer per­son­al­ized beach, farm and bush rides to suit your rid­ing abil­ity, time and bud­get over their large sheep farm. Rid­ers will en­joy stun­ning views from Ste­wart Is­land to Fiord­land, over Te Wae­wae Bay, which is also home to the Hec­tors Dol­phins. Treks are best suited to

in­ter­me­di­ate rid­ers, but they have op­tions for chil­dren and novices too. Groups are lim­ited to four and a weight limit of 90kg ap­plies. Con­tact Elfi Men­pes on 021 08611505.

BEAU­MONT HIGH COUN­TRY EX­PE­RI­ENCE

Struan and Lynn Minty have been op­er­at­ing the Beau­mont High Coun­try Ex­pe­ri­ence since 2003. There you can choose from half- and full-day ac­tiv­i­ties to multi-day all-in­clu­sive horse rid­ing pack­ages ex­plor­ing their more than 7280-hectare high coun­try sheep sta­tion. A favourite is the ‘NZ Ranch Exclusive’ which runs over seven days and nights and in­cludes mus­ter­ing on horse­back along with other unique as­pects of a high coun­try sheep farm. Ac­com­mo­da­tion is pro­vided in the Beau­mont cot­tage ad­ja­cent to the homestead. Treks run from Novem­ber to April or dur­ing the off-sea­son by ar­range­ment. Con­tact (03) 931 9858 or 027 292 8204 or visit www. beau­mon­t­ex­pe­ri­ence.co.nz

WESTRAY HORSE TREKS For those head­ing to to­wards Fiord­land, Te Anau has spec­tac­u­lar trekking. Lo­cated 6km from the Te Anau town­ship is Westray Horse Treks. Rides take in spec­tac­u­lar 360 de­gree panoramic views of Lake Te Anau, en­com­pass­ing the town­ship, sur­round­ing moun­tain ranges, wildlife re­serve and farm­land. They wel­come be­gin­ners and peo­ple with no previous ex­pe­ri­ence, but spec­ify a weight limit of 95kg. For more in­for­ma­tion, con­tact Andy on 0800 148735.

HIGHRIDE AD­VEN­TURES If you want to check out some of the coun­try made fa­mous by the Lord of the Rings tril­ogy head out to Aaron and Louise Duthie’s Highride Ad­ven­tures, on a work­ing 284-hectare sheep, deer and cat­tle farm. For more in­for­ma­tion, check out www. highride.co.nz or phone (03) 249 7570 or 027 3082719.